As an example of this kind of a coating film transfer tool, Japanese Patent Publication No. 11639/1991 has hitherto been widely known. The tool disclosed in the aforementioned patent publication is made up of a pay-out reel with a coating film transfer tape wound thereon and a winding reel for recovering the used tape disposed in a case and a peak-shaped head for transfering the coating film. With such a tool, however, winding of the used coating film transfer has to be done manually.
The present inventor has developed a method in which the used coating film transfer tape is wound up automatically (Japanese Utility Model application No. 68371/1991). This coating film transfer tool is, as shown in FIGS. 6-8, made up of a coating film transfer tape pay-out reel 4 and a used coating film transfer tape winding reel 5 mounted on two supporting shafts 2, 3 embedded in the case 1 to be freely rotatable, a coating film transfer head 6 is provided protrusively out of the case 1 and a cover plate 7 is fitted to close the side opening of the case 1.
The pay-out reel 4 is made up of a boss 9 of a drive gear wheel 8 and a pay-out cylinder 10 freely rotatable on the outer periphery of the boss 9 and the boss 9 and a rim 11 are connected by 4 spokes 12. The boss 9 is made up of an outer cylinder 14 outside of an inner cylinder 13 with a given gap therebetween, with a base end of the outer cylinder 14 in connection with the inner cylinder 13. The inner cylinder having a through hole and a supporting shaft 2 inserted rotatably therethrough. On the side wall of the outer cylinder 14, there are formed a pair of clutch arms 16, each having one clutch claw 15 at the forward end thereof and the clutch claw 15 is engaged disengageably through the elasticity of the clutch arms 16 with a plurality of claws 17 formed annularly in the inner periphery of the pay-out cylinder 10. Also amid the pair of spokes 12, there are formed a pair of arc-shaped ratchet arms 19 with stopper claws 18 formed at the tip thereof and the stopper claws 18 are engaged disengageably through the elasticity of the ratched arms 19 with a plurality of claws 20 formed annularly on the inside of the case 1 to thereby prevent free rotation of the pay-out reel 4 and winding reel 15.
Meanwhile, the winding reel 5 forms a tape guiding flange 22 on the base end of a winding cylinder 21 and also forming a driven gear wheel 23 to be in mesh with a drive gear wheel 8 on the back of the flange 22 and having its supporting shaft 3 set freely rotatable through the through hole in the winding cylinder 21. The number of teeth of the driven gear wheel 23 is approximately 1/2 that of the drive gear wheel 8.
The pay-out cylinder 10 has a coating film transfer tape 24 wound thereon, then one end of the coating film transfer tape 24 is paid out from the pay-out cylinder 10, it is then twisted by 90.degree. by a guide pin 25 a little before the head 6 and led outward, thereafter it is led past the peak-shaped portion 26 of the head 6 into the case 1, the aforementioned twisting is restored until it reaches the guide pin 27 or it is further twisted by 90.degree. before it is wound on the winding cylinder 21. In the amount of the coating film transfer tape 24 wound on the pay-out cylinder 10 is approximately twice as much as the diameter of the winding cylinder 21. By the way, the coating film transfer tape 24 is so wound that the coating film to be transferred is on the outside of the loop.
When the coating film transfer tool of the aforementioned construction is used as a tool for erasing characters or the like, a white corrective paint film is to be formed as the coating film transfer tape 24 over a layer of a release agent on one side of the substrate tape with a layer of the adhesive layer applied on the white corrective paint film. In order to erase characters or the like with this coating film transfer tape 24, the case 1 is to be moved in the direction perpendicular (the direction shown by the arrow "a" in FIG. 8) to the longitudinal direction of the coating film transfer tape 24 with the adhesive layer thereon being pressed against the characters or the like by means of the peak-shaped portion 26.
It is thereby possible to have the corrective paint layer on the coating film transfer tape 24 removed by the release agent layer and fixed by the adbesive layer on characters and the like by means of the peak-shaped portion 26. As the case 1 moves, the tension being applied to the coating film transfer tape 24 acts as a rotation torque to the pay-out cylinder 10, the pay-out cylinder 10 with its engagement with its claw 17 and with clutch claw 15 moves with the drive gear wheel B and a new coating film transfer tape 24 is paid out. The stopper claw 18 then goes out of engagement with the claw 20 because of the elasticity of the ratchet arm 19, the rotation of the drive gear wheel 8 being thus permitted. The drive gear wheel 8 rotates the winding cylinder 21 via the driven gear wheel 23 and the winding cylinder 21 winds the used coating film transfer tape 24 automatically. Thus, the corrective paint layer of the coating film transfer tape 24 is transferred on characters or the like for erasing thereof successively and the used coating film transfer tape 24 is automatically wound by the winding reel 5.
Meanwhile, the outer diameter of the coating film transfer tape 24 on the pay-out reel 4 decreases as erasing proceeds, this resulting in a lower feeding speed, while the outer diameter of the coating film transfer tape 24 on the winding reel 5 increases, this resulting in a higher winding speed. If this is allowed to continue, the coating film transfer tape 24 is bound to be broken due to the increasing tension, hence the feeding speed and the winding speed have to be synchronized. Hence, it is so arranged that, when the synchronism between the above two speeds is broken and the torque acting on the pay-out cylinder 10 is increased, the clutch claws 15 are disengaged from the claws 17 by the elasticity of the clutch arm 16 and the pay-out cylinder 10 is allowed to rotate in sliding contact with the outer cylinder 14 for restoration of synchronism between the feeding speed and the winding speed.
When the above-mentioned coating film transfer tool is used as a pasting tool, a coating film transfer tape 24 in which an adhesive layer is formed on one side of a substrate tape over a release agent layer is used and the adhesive layer alone is transferred to the surface of paper or the like in the same way as the above-mentioned erasing tool.
With the above-mentioned conventional coating film transfer tool, when the pay-out cylinder 10 rotates in sliding contact with the outer cylinder 14 to synchronize the pay-out speed of the coating film transfer tape 24 with the winding speed thereof, the "sliding rotation" is bound to be repetition of disengaging of the clutch claw 15 and the claw 17 and reengaging of the two, this resulting in unevenness of the running speed of the coating film transfer tape 24 and, moreover, the running speed unevenness is bound to be greater, as the tool is used longer with increasing difference between the feeding speed and the winding speed.
The present invention is aimed at improving the conventional coating film transfer tool for solving the above-mentioned problems.